Everything You Need to Know About This Week in Food

Want to seem like you know what you’re talking about while discussing current events at the dinner table this week? Read through our essential guide to the week’s earth-shattering food news. Find out about Hamburger Helper (and Jay-z’s) name change, what iconic dining and restaurant blog is finito, and which food celebrity got a cool four Emmy nominations.

Want to seem like you know what you're talking about while discussing current events at the dinner table this week? Read through our essential guide to the week's earth-shattering food news. Find out about Hamburger Helper (and Jay-z's) name change, what iconic dining and restaurant blog is finito, and which food celebrity got a cool four Emmy nominations.

Amass Opens to International Fanfare in Copenhagen

What happened: Noma's former head chef, Matt Orlando, opened his own, relatively affordable 60-seat restaurant, also in Copenhagen.
Who cares: Michelin nerds, Noma devotees, and lots of other food-obsessed people who probably don't actually live in Denmark.
Further reading:AOK's writeup of Orlando and the opening. It's in Danish, but Chrome or Google Translate will happily help you out with that one.

Anthony Bourdain and Top Chef Both Score Emmy Nominations

What happened:Top Chef got a nod for Outstanding Reality Series yet again. More surprising, Anthony Bourdain picked up a cool four nominations—three for his work with CNN's Parts Unknown and one for hosting ABC's The Taste. Not a bad year for food TV, which could use the good press post-Paula.
Who cares: Bourdain fans and Bravo junkies, two groups that have literally nothing else in common.
Further viewing: The shows themselves, if you haven't seen them yet.

Hamburger Helper Drops Hamburger from Its Name

What happened: In one week, both Jay-Z and Hamburger Helper changed their names. Hova is dropping the hyphen, to be known as Jay Z forevermore, while Hamburger Helper is nixing Hamburger from its moniker in an attempt to better capture the diversity of its offerings. The revamped brand—now just "Helper"—is trying to cater more to millenials, especially single men, as opposed to its previous demographic of career women with no time to cook. General Mills felt that "Hamburger" was too limiting, especially since its Chicken and Tuna Helpers seem to actually be its most popular varieties. As for the fate of the creepy four-fingered gloved hand mascot Lefty? He's staying.
Who cares: General Mills and possibly broke college boys. That's about it.
Further reading:Business Weekdid a pretty in depth write-up, complete with interviews.

The NY Times Diner's Journal is No More

What happened: The NY Times Diner's Journal—which began in 2006 as a place for Frank Bruni, then the Times restaurant critic, to post observations about food that went beyond the borders of his weekly review—is no more. The Dining section commented that it ended the blog "in order to consolidate all of [its] food coverage on the main Dining page."
Who cares: Everyone who was a longtime fan of Diner's Journal, including yours truly. The good news? NY Times executive editor Jill Abramson announced that Sifton is stepping down as national editor to take on two new projects. Eater reports, "one of these projects will be 'a new dining news product'," and the other project will be "to create a digital magazine 'in the tradition of Snow Fall,' the Pulitzer Prize-winning interactive multimedia feature story."
Further reading:Eater; The NY Times official announcement.

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